This winter, Timothy Amukele, M.D., Ph.D., took over as director of clinical laboratories at Johns Hopkins Bayview. In this role, Dr. Amukele oversees the day-to-day operations of the laboratories and works with clinicians throughout the Medical Center, but his work outside the lab is even more unique.

Dr. Amukele was born in Ohio, but moved to Nigeria with his parents as a child. His time there drove his desire for research in the quality of clinical laboratories in developing countries and chronic diseases in sub-Saharan Africa.

Recently, Dr. Amukele successfully completed research on the use of drones in health care.

After visiting laboratories around the world, Dr. Amukele realized that transporting blood and urine samples for medical testing is one of the biggest hurdles in developing countries. “The idea for using drones first came from the problem of moving samples internationally,” he explains. “There are a lot of places in the world where there are no roads, but with the use of drones, we have access to these places.”

Through his research, Dr. Amukele has demonstrated that blood samples flown on drones retain their integrity. They were not destroyed by the flight. “This is a big deal because blood samples are very fragile and can be destroyed even by riding in vehicles traveling on uneven roads,” he explains.

Dr. Amukele predicts that this initial research and testing should be complete by the end of this year, and hopes that soon the drones will be helping to test and treat chronic health conditions where no roads go.